Contrasting WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and Abrdn Healthcare Investors (NYSE:HQH)

WhiteHorse Finance (NASDAQ:WHF) and Abrdn Healthcare Investors (NYSE:HQH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Dividends

WhiteHorse Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.2%. Abrdn Healthcare Investors pays an annual dividend of $2.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.0%. WhiteHorse Finance pays out 187.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for WhiteHorse Finance and Abrdn Healthcare Investors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
WhiteHorse Finance	1	1	1	0	2.00
Abrdn Healthcare Investors	0	0	0	0	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance presently has a consensus price target of $12.75, suggesting a potential upside of 8.88%. Given WhiteHorse Finance’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe WhiteHorse Finance is more favorable than Abrdn Healthcare Investors.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.2% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.6% of Abrdn Healthcare Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of WhiteHorse Finance shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.3% of Abrdn Healthcare Investors shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Abrdn Healthcare Investors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
WhiteHorse Finance	22.73%	13.12%	5.70%
Abrdn Healthcare Investors	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

WhiteHorse Finance has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Abrdn Healthcare Investors has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares WhiteHorse Finance and Abrdn Healthcare Investors”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
WhiteHorse Finance	$28.41 million	9.58	$20.41 million	$0.82	14.28
Abrdn Healthcare Investors	$74.55 million	12.62	N/A	N/A	N/A

WhiteHorse Finance has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Abrdn Healthcare Investors.

Summary

WhiteHorse Finance beats Abrdn Healthcare Investors on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About WhiteHorse Finance

WhiteHorse Finance, Inc. is business development company, non-diversified, closed end management company specializing in originating senior secured loans, lower middle market, growth capital industries. It invests in broadline retail, office services and supplies, building products, health care services, health care supplies, research and consulting services, application software, home furnishings, specialized consumer services, data processing and outsourced services, leisure facilities, cable, and satellite. It prefers to invest in United States. It typically invests between $5 million to $25 million in companies having enterprise value of between $50 million and $350 million.

About Abrdn Healthcare Investors

Abrdn Healthcare Investors is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by abrdn Inc. The fund invests in public equity markets across the globe. It seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating in the healthcare sector, including the biotechnology, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals industries. The fund primarily invests in growth stocks of small cap companies. It employs fundamental analysis with a focus on factors such as current or anticipated market position for services or products, experienced business management, recognized technological expertise, and the ability either to generate funds internally to finance growth or to secure outside sources of capital to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index, the S&P 500 Index, and the S&P 1500 Healthcare Index. Abrdn Healthcare Investors was formed on October 31, 1986 and is domiciled in the United States.